Edinburgh Fringe comedy review

It’s very tempting to review a show called Give This A Miss with just two words: Yes, do. But it’s advice you might want to consider. 

Tim Reeves’s shtick is that he doesn’t want to be at the Fringe at all. He’s a reluctant nepo baby given his slot as his uncle runs the gaff. It’s easy to believe him, as he presents himself as a stressy bag of nerves grinding out material he has little confidence or interest in. ‘I am not enjoying this,’ he keeps reminding us.

Trouble is, neither are we. This super low-status ‘woe is me’ angle is self-defeating. Even if it’s fake, the tension he exudes spreads discomfort in the audience. And when your crowd work involves asking people what other Fringe shows they’ve seen, it only serves as a reminder of what other – better - options they could have chosen.  Not to mention that it’s the same conversation being held in 100 bars right now for free.

Perhaps with great talent and material, Reeves could pull it off, but there’s not enough evidence of that. You can’t project the notion that the conventions of comedy are beneath you and then perform unironic material about ‘baby on board’ signs (perhaps he’s too young to know this was as hack a topic as airline food in the late 1980s) or the curse of being the world’s oldest man, which is a long-running Richard Herring gag.

Too many of Reeves’s routines feel like endurance exercises, such as hearing the same nine words repeated for a minute or two, or trying to stick with a convoluted stream of consciousness about the Fringe having started life as a ferret-smelling display. The weirdness of his routines is the joke, but you have to be very committed to absurdist whimsy to go with him.

There are some more pleasingly offbeat routines, based on the limescale in his kettle becoming its own micro-ecosystem or what an ambulance could learn from a hearse, but much of it is too elusive.

This feels like a show that will get a lot of walkouts (although none tonight) – which Reeves will wear as a badge of pride for being so alternative. But it’s not a sell-out to keep people engaged with what you have to say rather than putting up barriers to push them away.

Review date: 18 Aug 2025
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett
Reviewed at: Underbelly George Square